


paint my spirit gold

by ProfessorESP



Series: Color Palettes [1]
Category: Girl Genius
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Character Study, Gen, Originally Posted on Tumblr, Platonic Soulmates, Romantic Soulmates, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, which is where the ambiguous or implied relationships tag comes in
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-05
Updated: 2017-04-05
Packaged: 2018-10-15 04:23:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 434
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10550004
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ProfessorESP/pseuds/ProfessorESP
Summary: Agatha carries her family on her back, on her shoulders, on the calluses of her hands.





	

Agatha’s oldest soul marks are two patches of bronze underneath her armpits, like someone had scooped her up from behind. Uncle Barry had done so often, before he disappeared and left her with the Clays. In the years afterwards, it always made her smile when she saw them, remembering how he’d throw her up into the air. She didn't remember exactly when or how she’d gotten them, but now she thinks of Lady Vrin’s story—of the Holy Child who was stolen—and wonders.

Adam and Lilith’s arms left rings around her back from their first hug, soot black layered above lilac purple, just barely overlapping. The marks grew with her, and now take up almost the whole of her back, wrapped around her like a shawl. Those, she’s thankful for. Even in her grief, in her disbelief of how much they’d kept secret from her, it’s a reminder that they’d always loved her, even when she was just Bill’s daughter and not their own.

It’s barely visible through her part, but if she ducks her head she can see a wash of charcoal grey centered on the crown of her head. It’s the only thing she has left of a man who was the closest thing she had to a grandfather long before he’d ever been her teacher.

* * *

She leaves Castle Wulfenbach with three marks: four dark, teal fingerprints left along the heel of her palm by the first boy who ever asked her to dance, a white paw print behind the shell of her ear left by the cat that calls himself her liege lord, and a wash of pink on her lips left by the first blood relative she’s touched in ten years.

She reaches Mechanicsburg with three more: two bright, cerulean handprints braced on her shoulders left by her Kolee, two forest green thumbprints below her collarbones left by her first lover, and a tyrian red hand above the nape of her neck left by a prince who turned into a snake.

* * *

By the time she walks into the red cathedral, her hands are stained with the watercolors of every minion, jaeger, and monster who’d so much as handed her a wrench. Violetta’s purple fingerprints halo the clasp of her locket, framed by Tarvek’s tyrian fingers on her nape and Van’s coffee bean brown knuckles along her neckline.

She has no orchid mother’s mark, no blue father’s fingerprints, but the Castle’s black pin-pricks ring her wrist like a bracelet, which is all the proof she’ll ever need. _I am a Heterodyne,_ her skin says, both a blessing and a brand.

**Author's Note:**

> This concept (I believe) was originally started by [lady_ragnell,](http://archiveofourown.org/works/2121813) but [sprx77's version](http://archiveofourown.org/works/8039425/chapters/18412138%22) is what inspired me to be _thematic_ about it. Soul marks are made via skin to skin contact, but some of the canon comic panels have been handwaved for drama  & thematic reasons (cough Violetta cough)
> 
> For reference: [Gil,](http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20040209) [Krosp,](http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20040319) [Theo,](http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20040915) [Zeetha,](http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20050216) [Lars,](http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20050321) [Tarvek,](http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20060526) [Violetta,](http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20100312) [Van,](http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20111207) [Castle Heterodyne.](http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20080714)


End file.
